Chemical free flower business in Kilnagross

Leitrim Flowers, a horticultural project based at Anamadu Fields, Kilnagross made a full page feature in the Irish Times magazine last Saturday.

Kealin and Ciarán Beattie moved from Dublin to Leitrim in 2008 and have started up a business selling and teaching locals about “chemical free flowers” for the cut flower market.

The company specialise in country-style flowers - particularly those with a perfume.

They are cut either on the day or the day before they’re sold - not picked weeks before you receive them and they’re not flown or shipped half way across the world in order to get to you. No herbicides or pesticides are used and they don’t spray the flowers with anything, they only use only organic materials and organic farming methods.

The Beatties told The Times, “We knew that there would be a market for freshly harvested, organically-cultivated, country flowers that were locally grown and that came with a low carbon footprint, rather than being shipped long distances from countries like Kenya, Colombia or Ethiopia.

“It’s just the same as people wanting to buy fresh, chemical-free, locally-grown vegetables or fruit.”

The flowers are harvested in their hundreds by the Beatties once a week, and then sold as mixed bouquets in the farmer’s markets in Carrick-on-Shannon and Sligo as well as to the newly-opened garden centre, Howbert and Mays Gardens, in Monkstown, Co Dublin.

The Beatties also sell a selection of their bouquets and some edible flowers to local restaurants and hotels, as well as providing flower arrangements for many different events (Ciaran is the chief flower-arranger).

From spring 2013, the Beatties will be giving courses on how to cultivate chemical-free cut flowers. For details see leitrimflowers.ie